On the clinical aspects and the complexity of the work: the clinics of work understood by psychosociologycal perspective

Abstract

The appearing of so-called “Clinics of Work” as a grouping of methodological fields – evidenced by a clinical perspective to analyze the complexity of labor relations and understanding the interaction between subjective and organizational labor issues – also points to this “enlarged” and multifaceted understanding inherent in the actual Work psychology. Although they do not constitute a single school of thought, those Clinics of Work share critical positions regarding the problems that involve the intricate relationship between subjectivity and work, having as main interests their symbolic and cultural dimensions, inherent in interpersonal connections, and the question of the activity in the work (ie, action and power of action of the subject in the work situation). The research, which links the social and clinical aspects, goes beyond the more technical or formal definition of work, lending it the idea of subjective implication, as well as the construction of meanings carried out by the subject in situation, considered essentially in its historical dimension and as a social actor; their proposals for intervention come together in this same perspective and seek to construct a knowledge inherent in the reality of work, inseparable from the experience from which it emerges and from the subjects who construct it – setting out its understanding precisely in the complexity of the situation, with its conflicts, difficulties and questions. In this article, we intend to discuss some fundamental characteristics of this methodological perspective focused on the issues of work, from the contributions of the french Psychosociology.